SYDNEY, Feb 28 (AFP) - Australian researchers have discovered a way to significantly boost the body's immune system to fight HIV and other deadly viruses, the scientists said Monday.
The researchers at two Australian universities made the discovery while developing a test to see how well certain animals' immune system's could fight HIV, the virus which causes AIDS.
Stephen Kent, of the University of Melbourne, said they extracted blood from laboratory animals and coated the cells with HIV peptide markers, a substance which tells the body's immune system that a cell is infected by the virus.
When the scientists injected the coated blood back into the animals to create the illusion the cells were infected by HIV, it triggered a dramatic immune response, Kent said.
"When we analysed HIV-specific immunity in the weeks following ... a marked enhancement of virus-specific immunity was induced," Kent said.
"So the test we were trying to devise was actually a vaccine in itself which was totally unexpected."
The researchers from Melbourne University's Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Australian National University's John Curtin School of Medical Research successfully tested the proceedure on mice and monkeys and found it even worked against drug-resistant forms of disease.
Kent said they hoped to begin human trials within two years.
"We think it's a very promising technique that offers hope for a therapy for HIV and other chronic infections," he said.
The treatment would involve injecting patients with their own blood cells after they had been coated with the peptides found on the surface of HIV-infected cells.
The injections would then dramatically boost the patient's immune system against the virus, Kent said.
"HIV ... is difficult to get rid of completely but if it's kept at bay by some sort of immune therapy it may not officially be cured but if that goes on for the person's life then it won't ever cause them any trouble," he said.
The new therapy had also shown promise as a treatment for other chronic infections like Hepatitis C, he said.
The researchers' study has been published in the latest international Journal of Virology.
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